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Pace University students found their efforts to abolish nuclear weapons rewarded Tuesday with the ultimate prize.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to establish a nuclear weapons ban treaty. Pace students and professors Matthew Bolton and Emily Welton, who are married to each other, had been working for three years on the negotiations.

Welty is the Vice Moderator of the World Council of Churches Commission on International Affairs which is a member of ICAN and main representative to the United Nations for the International Peace Research Association. Her focus has been primarily been on mobilizing communities of faith to speak out on nuclear disarmament.

Bolton was part of a specific ICAN team that advocated successfully for the treaty to include victim assistance and environmental remediation provisions, as well as obligations on states to provide international cooperation and assistance to countries affected by nuclear weapons use and testing.

"The nuclear weapon prohibition treaty is the most significant shift in nuclear politics since the end of the Cold War," Bolton said. "It is wonderful that the Nobel Peace Prize recognized the thousands of people around the world who made it happen.

Two Pace juniors, Terrie Soule and Sydney Tisch, have made advocacy calls to all of the diplomatic missions who had voted in favor of the treaty at the negotiating conference this summer and urged states to sign and ratify the treaty.

“Nuclear disarmament is an important issue to me because I believe that long-lasting peace cannot be achieved through threats to destroy one another,” said Tisch. However, I believe it can be achieved through meaningful dialogue and cooperation, for which a ban on nuclear weapons sets an amazing precedent."